Dear family, friends and readers,

I must share about my weekend and what God has done in a few short days.

I found out my fundraising status earlier this week. I was at 5%, when the schedule recommended I be at 50% at this point in time. I won’t lie and say I did not feel a little discouraged, but as I read the word of God I felt a peace.

I reflected this week, reading John 21:15-19. Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?”, Peter replies “Yes” then Jesus says “Take care of my sheep.” Jesus asks Peter this three times.

I am overwhelmed by the idea of Jesus asking me if I loved him. The feeling of unworthiness settles into me. But reading on, Peter replies with “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”, Jesus gives Peter a chance to cancel out his three denials. Jesus reinstates Peter in a position to feed his lambs, take care of his sheep and feed his sheep. In this same way, my feeling of unworthiness to serve God became invalid, for Jesus can use even me, an imperfect daughter of God for His kingdom work.

With this encouragement I prepared to speak in front of our mother church, VVAC (Vancouver Vietnamese Alliance Church). I was unsure of my personal relationship with the mother church as I had kept a distance for years because of my parents’ divorce. But God was allowing me a chance to cancel out any past hurt between me and the church through my preparations to serve Him. With the support of trusted individuals and God to give me the courage to face my Goliath of public speaking in Vietnamese, I shared in my child-like Vietnamese to the congregation about God’s calling for me to serve in Japan with OMF, why they needed to pray for the Japanese church and how I had a financial need that needed to be fund-raised.

With prayer for good communication of language, emotions and anecdotes; the Holy Spirit seemed to move the Vietnamese congregation as I shared about how my heart hurts for the Japanese who have yet to know God. I stumbled on many words that I learned moments before, but received a lot of affirmation throughout my sharing time. God gave me the words to speak into their lives in a language I was not confident in. After the service, I not only received an unexpected amount of support and encouragement, I also received healing for a wound (made so many years ago) by the act of God’s love shown through my Vietnamese Church.

The week started off in discouragement, but ended with God helping me move forward to follow him.

I left church this week #blessed.